The Fourth Daughter
by iHeartParamore
Summary: What if Tevye's fourth daughter, Shprintze, had fallen in love too? What if she met her own Russian to fall in love with? Is being Jewish while her love is Russian reason to live unhappy? Will she make the same choice as Chava?
1. Falling in Love With a Russian

Falling in Love with a Russian

Chava had always been a bookworm. While she was obsessed with reading the thoughts and stories of famous writers, _I _was trying to become one. I was much less interested in those stories than I was with creating my own. However, ink and paper were hard enough to find in our little village, and on top of that our family wasn't the best off. Instead of writing, I thought up stories in my head.

One day, Chava and I were in Motel and Tzeitle's shop when three Russians came in. I wasn't paying attention at first – my head was busy thinking up a story – but eventually I noticed that Sasha and Vovochka, two Russians who were controlled by the Constable, were teasing Chava. I sunk down in my chair and hid, listening to their intimidating voices.

But suddenly, another Russian named Fyedka stopped them. I was surprised that a Russian was sticking up for a Jew, so surprised that I actually sat up straight in my chair. That was when I caught his eye.

I noticed that Vovochka was staring at me. I've seen that man before with the Constable. He was a little shorter than the rest of the Russians, with a glint in his dark eyes. Currently, his mouth was curled into a half smile working like a clock in tandem with the kind way his features were placed on his face. I blushed and tried to hide by dipping my head, but I knew Vovochka was still looking at me. He and Sasha were headed toward the door, but when I dared to look up again, sure enough he was still looking at me.

"Shprintze," Chava called out, "please go home. I'm sure Mama can find a use for you."

I would have normally objected, but I stiffly stood from my seat and followed the Russians out the door. I did notice, however, that Fyedka and Chava were staying inside. "Don't you two touch her!" Fyedka called out to his men.

I immediately started for home, but Vovochka's presence possessed me to take my time.

"Shprintze," he spoke.

I spun around. "Yes, Vovochka?"

"That's a beautiful name."

"Thank you." I looked down at my feet, but I couldn't keep from smiling. I got a bubbly feeling in the core of my stomach.

"It means 'hope,' I believe," he mused.

I looked around for Sasha, expecting this to be a practical joke, but Vovochka's other half was gone. "Yes, in Yiddish…"

Vovochka took a step closer. I didn't know whether to be afraid or excited. He must have sensed my fear, because he immediately said, "I won't hurt you, I promise." I looked up, and saw the kindness in his face spill into his eyes.

We stood there silently for a few moments. "You're very pretty, Shprintze."

"I'm only fifteen," I answered.

"I am seventeen," Vovochka told me, as if it did not make a difference. It didn't, but as far as Papa was concerned, Russians were barely human.

"I don't know how it is in Russia, but here, the matchmaker picks our husbands." I had always longed for someone handsome, strong, and tall like Vovochka, but there is no way Papa could possibly approve. His nerves had already been tested when Tzeitel decided to marry Motel and when Hodel and Perchik fell in love. "Besides, if you are a Russian, how could you fall in love with me, a Jewish girl?"

"Is your God a prejudiced one?" Vovochka pleaded. Tears began welling to my eyes. I did want to be with Vovochka, but my family had already sacrificed so much for love…

Vovochka grabbed my hands. "Shprintze, I have seen you so many times. Each time I say, That beautiful girl. Her matchmaker will pair her with a man hardly worthy for a mud-bathed pig, just because of the occupation her father has selected. She will end up the domestic of a house of farm children, because God has chosen to trap her in a world where love does not exist. _Why_. Where does your God say that you must marry who an old woman chooses? It is your life, not hers."

"The Fourth Commandment: You shall honor your father and mother," I recited from the Bible.

Vovochka broke his gaze. "If you say so, Shprintze. I will bury my feelings if you wish. But please, love, consider running away with me?"

"Vovochka, this is so much all at once-"

He cut me off with a kiss. I was so taken aback, I gasped after he pulled away.

"I did not ask you to cut off your arm, Shprintze. I asked you to think about it. Will you, for me?"


	2. Faced With a Choice

Faced With a Choice

Tzeitel and Motel really are a great couple. They had been friends for so long, and loves for mostly the same time. The ceremony is beautiful. During the dances, Bielke and I talk mostly about what our weddings will be like. I told her I want my dress to be all lace, like beautiful spider webs. I imagined what it would be like if I were to marry Vovochka. Would my church come? Would Rabbi still marry us, since Vovochka is a Russian?

I haven't told a soul about my budding love with Vovochka. Last night he threw a pebble at my window, and I snuck down to meet him. We talked for hours, and he again urged me to think about running away with him. At the end of our rendezvous, he kissed me underneath the full moon.

During the reception, Lazar Wolf (a butcher who was supposed to marry Tzeitel) and Papa got into an argument. Perchik, our tutor, ended the argument by dancing with Hodel. Hodel told us sisters about her and Perchik being loves. I wondered then, if Hodel can love Perchik without Papa's permission, why am I not allowed to love Vovochka?

Men began asking the women to dance, which is not permissible in Jewish tradition. According to Perchik, it happens in the Western World all the time. One man came up to me and asked me to dance. He was wearing a dark black coat, like the rest of the men, and a hat covering his hair. I did not recognize him until I saw a familiar glint in his dark eyes.

"Vovochka!" I whispered. "How did you get here?"

"It wasn't easy," he whispered back. We danced together for three songs, and then he tilted his head up, like heard something in the distance. "I must go," he told me. "Have you decided what you want to do?"

"Visit me tonight," I told him. "I will be in the horse barn."

Vovochka gave me an impossibly quick peck on the nose, and then ran off. I stood in his wake, smiling.

"Who was that you were dancing with?" Bielke asked.

"A friend," I answered, not caring to explain Vovochka's scheme. "A very good friend."

All around me couples were dancing peacefully, but all this was disrupted by screaming and the sound of objects being crushed. I turned to look toward the commotion, and I found the Constable pointing at the crowd with a gun. Behind him lined up in a V were his other Russians. Vovochka was there, too, with a gun pointed straight at Papa.

"No!" I screamed, terrified of him shooting.

Men were trying to make a wall in front of the women, should the Russians shoot. I walked around the wall of Jews, and caught Vovochka's eye.

"How could you?" I mouthed.

"I had no choice," Vovochka mouthed back.

I shook my head. "Me," I pointed to myself. "_I_ was the other choice."

Then I bolted. I didn't know where I was going, but I ran.


	3. Do You Love Me?

Do You Love Me?

I keep replaying that moment in my head. The moment when there was a gun in Vovochka's hands, pointed directly at my father. Vovochka did come after the wedding to the barn.

"What were you doing?" I demanded as soon as he stepped foot in the barn. "What were you doing with a gun… pointed at _my _father?"

"I was following orders," Vovochka said sincerely. "The last thing I would ever want to do is hurt you, Shprintze." He hugged me, but I didn't hug him back.

"You could have bailed," I said, refusing to look at him.

He tilted my chin up with his fingers, so I had to look at him. "I don't follow the Constable's orders, I get shipped back to Russia. And I never see you again."

I started to cry again. I wrapped my arms around Vovochka. "Why, Vovochka?" I sobbed. "Why must it be this way?"

Vovochka sighed. "We will get out of this somehow. If I can't find a way, I'll make a way. But I do have one thing to ask you, Shprintze."

"If it's about running away with you, I still don't know. There's so much going on right now."

"Do you love me, Shprintze?" Vovochka asked.

"Love you?"

"Yes, love me."

"Vovochka… of course I love you! I wouldn't be out here if I didn't."

"That's all I needed to know. But now I have extremely important news to tell you."

I nodded, urging him on.

"A month from today, the Constable will expel the Jews from Anatevka. You will get a three days' notice."

"How?" How could the Russians take away our land, our homes, our lives?

"It's a long, complicated snowballed story. I'm just warning you. And I'm here to say that if you want to run away with me, I'd be happy to as soon as tonight."

"Oh, Vovochka…" I felt so overwhelmed. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I was never faced with a choice such as this. For fifteen years, my life had constantly been a rut, with nothing original. Now that I was facing a new adventure, I wasn't sure if I was ready or not. "I love you. I've never loved any other man in my entire life like this. I want you to know that. But at the same time, I could never leave my family at a time like this."

"If your family will just make you marry a Jewish man you don't love, why do you want to stay with them?" Vovochka asked.

"Family is so much more than that," I tried to explain. "Sure, they do things you don't like, but they're always there for you through your struggles and your joys. That's why I can't leave them now."

"I understand," Vovochka said. "But when you officially get the news of the expulsion, let me know where your family plans to move. I will follow you there. Then we can get married."

I want so bad to trust him, but whether we're in Anatevka or Antarctica, I don't think Papa will be thrilled with me loving a Russian. "Okay," I nodded.

Vovochka kissed me again. "I love you, Shprintze."

"I love you, Vovochka."


End file.
